Evolution of American Agriculture/Chapter VII
CHAPTER VII
1865—1887.
Period of expansion into the far west.
THE EXPANSION of agricultural production was relatively more rapid after the Civil War than before it. This war did not check the Northern expansion, but did completely disorganize the cotton industry and involve it in temporary ruin. The improved machinery (reapers, threshers, corn planters, cultivators, etc.), enabled the North to increase its production, though a large portion of its labor force was diverted into the army.
Women and children fed the North, their labor being rendered more efficient by the use of the machines. In 1865 there were 250,000 reapers in use in the Northern states. From 1859 to 1863, the wheat crop of Indiana alone increased from 15,000,000 to 20,000,000 bushels, though 10 per cent of her male population was in the army on the latter date.
Part of the drain on the labor force of the North occasioned by the war was made good by immigration, the immigration from 1860 to 1870 being nearly as great as from 1850 to 1860. Practically all these immigrants settled in the Northern states, and 42 per cent of them settled in the group of states which lie north of the Ohio River, west of New York and east of the Missouri River, the number going to the real South being practically negligible.
In the following years the immigration was almost 3,000,000 persons—a population equal to that of the Colonies at the time of the Revolution—and these settlers added 297,000 square miles of cultivated fields to the farm lands of the country—an area equal to that of Great Britain and France combined. From 1880 to 1890 the immigration was 5,250,000, many of whom found their way onto the Western farms.
While this great migratory movement was going forward the mining, transportation and manufacturing industries were being developed to keep pace with the growing needs of the increasing population. In the field of agricultural machinery there was a great expansion and the census figures are extremely interesting. Farm machinery produced in the census years was as follows:
1860 |
$21,000,000 |
1870 |
42,500,000 |
1880 |
68,500,000 |
1890 |
81,250,000 |
And during this same period the census returns show the grain crops to have been as follows:
1859— bushels
"
"
1869— "
"
"
1879— "
"
"
1889— "
"
"
Also during this period the export of breadstuffs was very significant of the agricultural advance, and by 1880 the United States had become the greatest exporter of wheat in the world.
The "Homestead" Law of 1862 was a great factor in the Westward expansion and the growth of agricultural enterprise. Practically free land encouraged the settlement of the public domain. The ease with which ex-soldiers could get land helped to prevent a glut of the labor market. The sale of army horses and mules to farmers helped to expand agriculture and it may be said that the close of the war marks the time when the ox, as a draft animal, was finally displaced by the horse.
This rapid settlement and cultivation of the land (very often on a purely speculative basis), brought a glut of agricultural commodities on the market. (Note the almost doubling of the cereal crops between 1869 and 1879.) Foreign countries were not able to take up the surplus, which resulted in an era of very low prices and the panic of 1877.
The rural discontent generated by this period of dislocation gave rise to the Grange and other farmer movements, which sought to readjust the environment by means of rural co-operation of all kinds.
A great expansion of the railway systems occurred in this period. Steel rails were substituted for iron rails; trunk line systems were organized; feeder lines or "Granger roads" were built in all directions, and the transcontinental lines were pushed through to the Pacific Coast, thus enabling the Western farmer to compete in the markets of the East.
Along with other improvements came the refrigeration car (1869), which permitted the transportation of meat at all seasons of the year and, by extending the refrigerating system to the ships, fresh meat was exported to Europe in 1876. Also, a system of grading and classifying grain was adopted, which allowed the handling of vast quantities in bulk and promoted the building of elevators both at interior points and on the lakes and seaboard, thus helping to decrease shipping costs and open up the world's markets to the American farmers.
The amount of grain that can be economically grown in any section is limited by the amount that can be harvested, and it was the invention of the twine binders by Appleby that enabled the production of grain to expand to its present magnitude.
Its consequences were quite as important as those that followed the invention of the reaper. The per capita production of wheat increased from 5.6 bushels in 1860 to 9.2 bushels in 1880.
Miller's improvement of the threshing machine and the use of the steam engine also helped in the expansion of the grain industry.
The invention of the roller process of making flour enabled the production of a better grade from spring wheat than had before been made from winter wheat. This immediately made the further North available as a wheat growing region, and Minnesota and the two Dakotas more than doubled their population in the ten years from 1870 to 1880. Further, the center of flour production moved at one jump from Rochester, New York, to Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The check rowing corn planter cut the labor of planting corn in half and enabled crass cultivation of the crop, and a greater production in consequence. In the semi-arid region the lister was adopted for corn planting and, by getting the corn deep, assured moisture for the plant and an almost certain crop. Other tools were devised to lighten the labor of cultivation, with a corresponding increase of the production per man. The corn harvesting machinery came later, owning to the fact that the corn can safely be left in the field until late in the year. Much of it is still gathered by hand with the husking peg, just as the Indians did it over 300 years ago.
Figures prepared by Mr. H. W. Quaintance of the Department of Agriculture, and based on the production of the staple food and forage crops, show that the efficiency of the farmer, through the use of improved machinery, increased during this period some 500 per cent over his efficiency in the previous period.
We have seen that cattle ranching began in the foothills of Virginia soon after the introduction of negro slavery. But, due to the wooded character of the country and the lack, both of demand and of transportation, had never developed to the point of being a distinct branch of agriculture.
However, the Westward march of the peoples and the gradual pushing back of the Indians opened the "plains" for settlement, and the grazing of cattle began to assume definite proportions as a distinct industry in the vast region. Western Texas was a great feeding ground where the buffalo and wild Spanish cattle roamed side by side and the pioneers were not slow to realize the possibilities of these natural pastures.
In 1857 the "cattle trail" was broken, a herd being driven "on grass" from Texas to Illinois—a truly remarkable performance. But the Civil War cut off the outlet for these cattle and they were left to multiply, awaiting the day of peace.
Then it was discovered that the grass of the Northern plains was as nutritious as that of Texas, and cattle could live outside all winter—could rustle forage. It was also discovered that Southern cattle gained more weight if driven North at 3 or 4 years of age, and the beef was of a superior quality. Immediately the plains, both North and South, must be made safe for the cattle business. The buffalo must be killed off and the Indians be confined on reservations. This task was complete about 1870, and the "trailing" of cattle from the breeding grounds in Texas to the fattening grounds in the North became an institution in Western life.
In 1871, 600,000 head of stock came over the trail from Texas. The sixteen years from 1869 to 1884, inclusive, show almost 5,000,000 head driven Northland—an average of more than 305,000 per year.
So vast a movement in a single industry must have its social reflexes, and we see the development of the "cow towns"—Newton, Abilene, Great Bend, Ellsworth, Dodge City, Hayes City and Ogallala—with a life as colorful and exciting as that furnished by any bonanza, handled 400,000 cattle in the year 1884.
After 1884 the trail declined because the railways began to penetrate to the heart of the cattle country. The corn fields were being pushed Westward and the winter feeding of cattle developed to link the pastures with the farms. The refrigeration of meat and shipment of frozen carcasses to Europe in 1876 was rapidly developing the packing industry. Kansas City, St. Joseph, Omaha, Sioux City, St. Louis and Chicago became great slaughtering centers.
In connection with the cattle-feeding industry the raising of hogs became a by-product, as the hogs could be fattened on the droppings and wasteage of the cattle.
We have seen the beginning of the dairy industry in the Colonial period and the subsequent effort to improve the breeds of dairy cattle. Butter making was practically confined to the supply of various local demands and the surplus of milk was converted into cheese, but the refrigeration system began to open up the possibilities of the butter market and the invention of the mechanical creameries in 1880 caused a revolution in the industry.
The commercial butter making center was at first in Orange County, New York, but the Babcock butter fat test, the centrifugal cream separator, and the bacteria method of "ripening" cream so developed the business that the center of manufacture moved Westward to Elgin, Illinois. The Americans are not great cheese eaters, and the foreign markets have special tastes in this regard, hence cheese making naturally declined and, on the strength of the national demand, butter making supplanted it.
The Civil War produced a violent agricultural change in the South. The emancipation of the slaves and the bankruptcy of the Southern planters required a reorganization of the cotton industry. This reorganization was encouraged by the high prices for cotton on the English market, which reached 43 cents per bushel in 1865.
But the reorganization was not a judicious one and fostered such an over production that the prices tumbled and many of the planters were involved in ruin. This tended to break up the big plantations, and many of them were cut up into small farms. It also encouraged the "tenant" system and "on the shares" farming, which in many sections degenerated into peonage—virtually a disguised form of agricultural slavery.
By 1879 the cotton industry had revived and the production of that year exceeded the production of 1860. Also, there was considerable diversification, the small farmers planting part of their land to corn and potatoes, raising gardens, keeping chickens and hogs, and milking a cow or two. This diversification met the bitter opposition of the merchant class of the South, who furnished the farmers with supplies on credit. They wanted a money crop—cotton—for by this means they derived a double profit and kept the agricultural class in economic subjection through the machinery of a vicious credit system.
The noise of this conflict still re-echoes throughout the South, its active manifestation in recent years being the formation of the Farmers' Union, which has acquired a large membership in every Southern state.
The twenty-two years of this period was one of the greatest in American history—a period of rapid growth in population, vast development in industrial enterprise, and enormous expansion of cultivated area. The American people were achieving unity and preparing for the conquest of the markets of the world.